CARLSBAD, Calif. (KGTV) -- A 71-one-year old man was attacked early Thursday morning while working on a popular beach.
The man is so terrified about the attack that he asked 10News to keep his name private. Throughout this story, we will refer to him as "Joe."
He told 10News he was using a metal detector on Carlsbad Beach when another man ambushed him and started screaming expletives at him.
“Unkept, and he had all this matty hair and he looked like some crazy guy and he was just using a lot of profanity," Joe said. "I couldn’t understand what he really wanted and then once he pushed me down then I realized he just wanted to hurt me.”
A witness captured a photo of the attack, which shows a man using Joe's equipment to beat him with. Other people jumped in to pull the man off him, but he ran away before police got there.
“He got ahold of my scoop and then started to hit me a couple of times with the scoop,” Joe said. "He wasn’t going to stop until the people pulled him off.”
His friend John Hughes, who is also a metal detection specialist, calls it a "blindsided assault."
“This is the worst assault I have seen in metal detecting, and I’ve been doing it 22 years,” Hughes said.
Hughes says they comb beaches for valuables and always try to reunite pieces with their owners before keeping them. He says they also pick up a lot of trash on the beach, and Joe has done a lot to try to help the community.
“Before he knew it he was on the ground," Hughes said. "And that could be you.”
If you have any information, call Carlsbad Police and reference case number 17-04327.
